By CHARLOTTE PERKINS
Journal Staff Writer
Back in October, State Senator Ross Tolleson and his wife, Sally, bought a Tahoe with a difference. They chose a “flex-fuel” vehicle, or FFV, which can run on gasoline or ethanol.
On Tuesday, Tolleson filled the tank with ethanol for the first time. He didn’t have that option before, because the very few ethanol pumps in the state at this point are on military bases or in private industrial use.
It was a big day for Tolleson, because, as chairman of the Senate Natural Resources and Environment Committee, he was celebrating a milestone event for Georgia, and it wasn’t in Atlanta.
It was in his hometown of Perry, which can now boast of the first E85 Ethanol pump for public use in the state. He saved some money, too, with the cost at $1.949 per gallon. The pump, which even had its own ribbon cutting, is located at the Fillers just off I-75, Exit 135.
Fillers is a Perry-owned business, one offsprin
Journal/Charlotte Perkins Mark Hamby, of Hamby Chevrolet stands with Davis Cosey of Davis Oil Company. |
g of the third generation Davis Oil Company, now headed by Davis Cosey with Dennis Burnett as sales manager of the new biofuels division.
If you’ve been hearing about biofuels and ethanol for years, and thought some of the talk sounded like pie-in-the-sky, think again.
Ethanol is here, and if you have a late model car you may be able to use it starting today. Mark Hamby, of Hamby Chevrolet, said Tuesday that GM already has flex-fuel vehicles on the market, and owners should check their manuals or call their car dealer to see it they can use ethanol. For those concerned about the fact that there’s only one pump open in the whole state at
Journal/Charlotte Perkins An ethanol pump. |
this point, the good news is that these cars and trucks can use either ethanol or gasoline or any combination of the two.
Manufacturers producing the flex-fuel cars and trucks are DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, Ford, Isuzu, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mercury and Nissan.
More pumps are coming, however, with the first installations along I-75 from the Tennessee to the Florida lines. Middle Georgia was the first innovator because of the efforts of the Middle Georgia Clean Cities Coalition and Davis Biofuels. Both the federal and the state government are pushing for more alternative fuel use, not just for cleaner air and less dependence on imported fossil fuels, but also because the production of fuel from agricultural products and byproducts could be a major boom for farmers.
Reducing the nation’s dependence on imported oils came up repeatedly at the event, and Dr. Linda Smyth, President of the Clean Cities Coalition, got a burst of applause when she said, “Just say no to imported oil!”
Charise Stephens, the young Executive director of the Middle Georgia Clean Cities Coalition, based in Macon, won high praise from most of the speakers for her grant writing and her determination to take advantage of available federal grants for alternative fuel activities. County Commission Chairman Ned Sanders, who has served on the Clearn Air Coalition, said that U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss has given major support to the project as well.
Mayor Jim Worrall of Perry said that he planned to purchase a flex-fuel vehicle, and that he was glad to see a reduction in dependence on foreign oil and “delighted for the farmers of Georgia.”
The E85 ethanol being pumped in Perry was made by a Georgia company, Windgap, from the byproducts of a brewery in North Georgia. Davis Oil’s other biofuel innovation – the biodiesel fuel already being sold at the Fillers in Centerville, is made from chicken fat. Agricultural leaders are now looking into the possibility of making fuel from pine trees.
To learn more about ethanol develoment nationwide, and specific car and truck models now capable of using both ethanol and gasoline visit www.E85Fuel.com.
